Missing the Point
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Introduction:
- The movie, Chocolat, is about a woman who comes to a small French town and opens a chocolaterie.
- She does not fit the mold that everyone else in the town has been pressed into by the mayor and the church.
- Among other things, she teaches the uptight community how to enjoy life and one another more.
- And the movie builds to a crescendo that includes a meal.
- The movie, whether intended or not, seems to have a parabolic intention. It sounds like it belongs in the Gospels.
I. Counter-Culture
- Jesus did not play by the "rules." Which is why he upset so many people.
- Mark 2 is filled with example of his disorienting approach to discipleship.
- His first comment to a paralytic was to say, Your sins are forgiven. Which upset the scribes. They were not willing to accept his authority over illness and sin.
- He ate dinner with the outcasts of society. The Pharisees and scribes took umbrage that he was associating with such people.
- His disciples did not engage in observing the Jewish fasting days. (These were fasts that were added after the Law was given.) Jesus said there was no cause for fasting.
- When Jesus and his disciples pulled grain on the Sabbath to eat they were criticized for that. Not lawful to pluck grain on the Sabbath, they said.
- When Jesus cured a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath he was accused of violating the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made for man's benefit, not the reverse, he said.
- What do you think the modern day counterpart of these stories would be? We are clearly not concerned about Sabbath keeping, but what isare our equivalents?
- How one dresses.
- Sexual behavior.
II.
Conclusion:
- We started the sermon with Chocolat, and we'll finish with it too.
- The heroine of the movie prepares a meal for an old woman (Judi Densch) and her friends.
- The unlikely group enjoys good food, laughter, and chocolate desert.
- It looks like the group that would have shown up at Levi's house in Mark 2:15. But it was the group that Jesus most preferred to be with.
- It was they who got the point. Grace.
- Jesus told the Pharisees that they had missed the point in regard to the Sabbath. The Sabbath is made for man and not man for the Sabbath, he said.
- As usual, Jesus goes to the reason that God gave us instruction. It was not for the sake of the instruction, but rather to help us be better, happier people.
- Which is why he gave us Sabbath.